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‘Last Man Standing’: Tim Allen Reveals He’s ‘Emotionally Drained’ Amid Series Ending

Tim Allen has built his career on being a man’s man. But keeping up that tough exterior was impossible during the final weeks of shooting Last Man Standing. The show is coming to an end after nine seasons on Thursday. And Allen said he had a tough time emotionally getting through the final weeks of shooting.

Allen spoke with Parade Magazine about the experience and how it impacted him.

Allen said the experience left him “emotionally drained.”

“We did our final show last night in front of an abbreviated crowd, what the Disney protocols would allow,” he said. “It was the end of nine years and, for a guy not really that attached to these feelings except when you’re losing a loved one or a pet—and I cover that stuff pretty well … When we got to three more, it started wearing on me. Then this ended in a gentle, wonderful way.”

Allen said filming the final episodes of Last Man Standing was particularly hard because reality kept creeping into the scenes. He admitted that the cast would see each other as friends and want to cry, but then they would slip back into character and want to laugh.

It’s a strange experience, especially in an industry that discards shows so quickly. Having one on for nine seasons over 10 years is incredibly rare.

“When you get into this 10th year, adding the one year we were off that we weren’t off really because we were kind of online, we have had some relationships,” Allen said. “There have been births of children, there have been deaths of crew members and family, there have been real tough times, and all the way through it, for this big a group, it was a very close connection.”

Tim Allen Says They Hit Finale ‘Out of the Park’

The cast and crew were sad to see Last Man Standing come to an end. But Tim Allen said he refused to end the show on a somber note. He wanted the finale to feel like “mission accomplished,” and he says he believes he accomplished that goal. Allen wrote the final episode. It’s the only episode he wrote of the series.

“I believe we knocked it out of the park,” Allen said Thursday, reports TV Insider. “Rather than have one where it’s sad, it wasn’t about sad. It wasn’t turning the light out at the end of the scene. We didn’t want to do any of that. We wanted to go out kind of naturally.”

The Last Man Standing series finale will air May 20 at 9 p.m.